Some student groups in the South-West, including the National Association of Oduduwa Students (NAOS), the Coalition of Yoruba Students, and the Yoruba Movement, on Tuesday held a peaceful protest in support of the Dangote Refinery amid its ongoing dispute with major oil unions and marketers.
The demonstrators, who gathered at the Iwo Road Roundabout, at the end of the Ibadan/Lagos expressway in Oyo State, marched through major routes, chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards with inscriptions such as “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” “#StopSabotage,” “#EndPENGASSAN,” and “#DangoteRefineryIsANationalAsset.”
Wearing matching shirts emblazoned with “Don’t Kill Dangote Refinery,” the protesters said their action was to draw the Federal Government’s attention to what they described as attempts by vested interests to undermine the operations of the refinery — regarded as Nigeria’s biggest industrial project and Africa’s largest single-train refinery.
President of the NAOS, Olalere Adetunji, urged President Bola Tinubu and relevant agencies to act swiftly to safeguard the refinery from disruptions.
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“We want to use this period to appeal to the Federal Government to protect the refinery and ensure that labour and marketers’ actions do not derail Nigeria’s move toward fuel self-sufficiency,” Adetunji said.
Security operatives, including police officers and personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps, were stationed around the protest area to maintain order as the demonstration progressed peacefully.